As his family celebrated Thanksgiving, Charlie Ragle agonized over a decision. Idaho State’s head coach had just wrapped up his first season with the Bengals, a one-win venture that left him feeling “miserable,” and now he had a choice: Continue coaching ISU, or return to Arizona, the place he calls home.

Arizona State had just hired a new head coach, Kenny Dillingham, who called Ragle during Thanksgiving week with a job offer: ASU’s assistant head coach special teams coordinator. Ragle was intrigued for a thousand different reasons. Some 15 years ago, when Ragle was the head coach at Chaparral High in the Phoenix area, he coached Dillingham, who played quarterback for that team. Plus, around this time last year, when Dillingham became Oregon’s offensive coordinator, he called Ragle with the same job offer. That, though, was the same day Idaho State offered Ragle its head coaching gig.

So Ragle turned Dillingham down once. He could not do so twice.

“Very seldom in your career do you get the opportunity, in this profession, to come back home and do what you love,” Ragle said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “And this was just an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”

On Sunday night, Ragle made his decision. He had coached his final game at Idaho State. He would stay in Pocatello for just 11 months, and he would serve just one season of the five-year deal he signed when he accepted the job last December. So he called athletic director Pauline Thiros and delivered the news. He had already set up a team meeting for 7:30 a.m. Monday morning, but he used that time to alert his assistants and players.

In the Holt Arena offices, he met with assistant coaches, both individually and all at once. Then he relayed the news to players. He told them the big news, that he was not returning to ISU — “and that I truly appreciated their efforts in what they tried to do in the short time that we were there,” Ragle said. “But that I had an opportunity, and I had spent days deciding, and that I was going to be taking the job here at Arizona State.”

After the meeting, which Ragle estimated lasted around 10-15 minutes, he left, allowing special teams coach Edgar Weiser to let players know their next steps. Weiser, per ISU release, will become the main team liaison in the interim.

These developments came together rather quickly. Ragle’s decision did not. Mainly, he said, he wanted to be around family, around people he’s familiar with. In the 2000s, he spent 11 seasons coaching high school ball in the Phoenix area, then five as Arizona’s special teams coordinator. He respects ISU president Kevin Satterlee, he said, and he likes the work Thiros is doing.

“This is about me having an opportunity to coach at a place that I’ve dreamed about being at,” Ragle said, “and doing it with a young man that I coached. Being able to walk outside and look down the street and know that my mom and my mother-in-law are 10 minutes away, and that my kids are able to see their grandmothers, 74 and 81, respectively. That was the ultimate decision. My brother’s here. I’ve got a bunch of cousins, and I’ve got a lot of family here on both sides.

“It’s home for me. My hometown (Playas, New Mexico) doesn’t exist anymore. It was a private little company town. So this has been home to me since 1999. I’ve been coming out here since the 70s, and this is a special place to me. It was just an opportunity that, when I put it all down on paper and waited out, this was the best decision for me and my family.”

Little of this ISU season went the way Ragle envisioned. In June, he had to find a few defensive backs coach when DaVonte’ Neal was arrested on a murder charge for an incident that occurred years ago in a separate state, meaning ISU could not have known about it. His safeties coach, JB Hall, also took a position at Georgia Tech that summer.

Then, in Idaho State’s road loss to San Diego State in Week 2, starting quarterback Tyler Vander Waal left with a collarbone injury that sidelined him until the final game of the season, a blowout loss to rival Idaho. The Bengals dealt with what felt like a million injuries all season, which turned Ragle’s job from difficult to nearly impossible, and even Ragle himself experienced health issues.

Around the time he took over ISU’s program, he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular and rapid heart rhythm that can lead to blood clots in the heart. He took medication, but that forced him to miss Idaho State’s road game against Montana State on Oct. 8. Roughly an hour before kickoff, he was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, and he later drove back to Pocatello.

“That was certainly a part of it, in the discussion,” Ragle said of his health issues, “but this is Power 5 football and in one of the largest cities in America. You’re gonna be scrutinized here more, probably. So there’s going to be stress that comes along with that, but it’s a different kind of stress.”

To Ragle, there were lots of other factors to consider.

“I think the obvious things you’ve gotta sift through is you’ve only been there 11 months, the commitment that the university made to you. There’s all those things,” Ragle said. “Obviously my staff and the considerations of those guys. So you’ve gotta weigh all of those things. And that’s not easy. But it is a business, and at the end of the day, I had to make a business decision that I thought was best for me and my family. Again, I don’t expect people to understand that, but if they were in my shoes, might be a different story.”

Among some ISU fans, one feeling has hovered over the move: Disappointment. Some feel let down by Ragle, who the ISU community felt excited about. They felt Ragle was the right guy, that eventually, he would put decades of losing behind the program and lead the Bengals into brighter days.

After all, Ragle was set up for success in ways his successors were not, from an added assistant coach salary pool — which Ragle used to hire two more coaches — to Holt Arena upgrades to much more. Heck, at his introductory press conference last year, Ragle said this: “My life’s dream was to be a head coach, and that dream and vision has taken me here to Idaho State University. As I told our players a short time ago, today is a new day in ISU football.”

In response to that criticism, Ragle offered this: “I understand why people say that. But I came there, I was bought in 100% to do the best job I could possibly do. My plan was to be there, and win, and be there for a long period of time. But I didn’t ever think about this being an opportunity. This opportunity hadn’t presented itself at the time. Does that make sense? That’s why it was a tough decision because of my fondness for this place, and having the ability to come back home.

“I understand why the fans and the people who love ISU would feel that way. And I certainly respect it. I don’t agree with it, because like I said, at the time, this decision wasn’t an option. Then when it became an option, obviously, I had to make a tough decision.”

So Ragle spent Monday and Tuesday traveling back to Tempe, where he will reunite with so many loved ones: Dillingham, former ISU defensive ends coach Vince Amey who is following Ragle to ASU, plus countless of Ragle’s family members.

Now, ISU will have to hire a second head coach in two years.

“People may scoff at this, but I absolutely enjoyed my time there,” Ragle said. “The people treated myself and my family fantastic. I’m a small town kid at heart. So that resonated with me, to be back in a smaller town. I certainly enjoyed that. I enjoyed the people. And again, I think the university and the athletic department are in great hands with President Satterlee and Pauline. I have the utmost respect for both of them. I know that this is hard and disappointing. It’s not something that I rest easy with. It matters to me. But they’re gonna be fine. They’ve got two good leaders there. At the end of the day, I had to make a business decision.”